Without actually performing procedures often in patients, it is difficult for a health care worker, such as a physician, to maintain the high degree of skill needed to perform these procedures or to implement new methods, operations and procedures. In addition, there is currently no way for physicians to realistically evaluate different approaches to treatment options for patient-specific situations prior to actually performing the procedures or examinations on the patient.
Systems for simulating medical procedures have provided important training tools that allow physicians to develop skills that can be transferred to the operating room. Such systems allow health care workers to practice the delicate eye-hand coordinated movements needed to navigate medical devices while viewing scanned images of a patient's anatomy on a display screen. However, current systems fail to include the sounds necessary for suitable ultrasound training.